At the recent Shop.org conference in Philadelphia, RetailWire spoke with IBM’s director of retail and CPG global industry marketing, and Scott Duby, director global retail solutions, to hear about a new “mega shopping lab” that recently opened in Shanghai, China. Would it be beneficial for retailers to create shopping labs of their own?

RSR’s most recent benchmark on retailers’ omnichannel strategies found the percent of retailers who report that their cross-channel shoppers are their most profitable shoppers is on the decline. Do you see cross-channel shoppers becoming less profitable for retailers over time?

A new survey from Hotwire PR finds marketers struggling to integrate campaigns across marketing channels, finding that nearly half generally admit that campaigns tend to work in isolation, with different channels being used to implement different campaigns. How important is it for retailers to develop single campaigns that works across marketing channels?

Earlier this week, Target announced plans to test beacons at stores in markets across the country, beaming special deals and recommendations through the retailer’s mobile app to customers as they shop. Do you expect Target mobile app users to embrace or reject messages beamed to them via beacons?

Urban Outfitters went out of its way late last year to tell analysts that its direct-to-consumer channel was strongly outperforming its stores. If true, why is Urban Outfitters opening 32 stores this year? What are the most meaningful lessons offered by Urban Outfitters offer around keeping physical stores “alive and relevant” while supporting online businesses?

A recent note to investors by Cowen analysts includes a prediction that Amazon.com will become the leading apparel retailer in the U.S. by 2017, topping Macy’s by a comfortable margin. Do you see it as inevitable that Amazon will top Macy’s and become the leading apparel retailer in the U.S.?

Claiming the current free service is “unsustainable” for retailers and logistical suppliers, John Lewis, the U.K. department store chain, is introducing a £2 charge for click and collect orders under £30 starting July 28. Should retailers charge for BOPIS?

When shoppers see a piece of clothing through a store window that is way out of their price range, they now have a quick way to find and buy the nearest possible cheap facsimile — that is, if it is available at J.C. Penney. Will mobile image search and product matching help drive sales for J.C. Penney?

CVS Health has announced the official opening of the company’s new Digital Innovation Lab in Boston with the stated goals of pursuing innovation in mobile, multi-channel e-commerce and personalization. What effect do you expect the lab will have on the company’s brand positioning and, ultimately, its performance?

Speaking at FMI Connect, Anastasia Voronkova, business analyst at Grid Dynamics, said she believes traditional grocers can offset the threat of Amazon across food categories by delivering omnichannel experiences. But the trick, she adds, is for grocers to leverage both their brick-and-mortar advantages and the best practices of online retailers. What advantages do traditional grocers have against Amazon and vice versa?

If you have a smartphone in five years, there’s a really good chance stores are going to know a lot about you as soon as you make your entrance. Will a large percentage of consumers by 2020 be open to retailers identifying them when they walk into stores?

Already the only warehouse club in the U.S. to provide a pickup option, Sam’s Club has added some mobile sophistication to its Club Pickup offering to “help save its members valuable time.” What do you think are the biggest pain points in the store pickup process?

Blue Nile learned a number of things from its test of jewelry cases at Nordstrom, like that most who came to the cases weren’t Nordstrom customers, but people who wanted to shop at Blue Nile in a physical store environment. Do you expect a significant uptick in the number of e-tailers opening physical shops over the next couple of years?

With majors such as Target and Kroger on one side and oodles of digital upstarts on the other, Walmart faces a daunting challenge in grocery, a make-or-break business for the retailer even as it must also manage a multitude of other categories. How would you assess Walmart’s strengths and weaknesses currently in the grocery category?

Only six percent of marketers say they have attained a single view of customers to support their cross-channel marketing goals, according to a study from Signal, the marketing technology vendor. Is collecting and matching siloed and fragmented engagement data to create a single view of the consumer a tangible goal?

Target plans to complete one of the largest rollouts of item-level radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in retailing by next year. What will implementation of item-level RFID tracking in categories such as clothing and home decor mean for Target’s ability to reduce out-of-stocks in stores?

Digital interactions are expected to influence 64 cents of every dollar spent in retail stores by the end of 2015, or $2.2 trillion, according to Deloitte Digital’s latest study, “Navigating the New Digital Divide.” Is the influence of digital and mobile reducing the value of traditional in-store shopping and browsing?

Grocery shoppers are ready for a more involved digital experience than many supermarkets are promoting or prepared to deliver, according to a global survey by Nielsen. Is the grocery category at a tipping point when it comes to e-commerce and digital shopping?

A recent survey-driven study published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing concluded that Millennials are “less likely to purchase online compared to their older counterparts.” Do you see a major shift from passive to active shopping at physical retail?

The distinction between online and off-line retail sales grows blurrier by the minute, as shoppers meld their consideration and purchasing behaviors into an “all-line” shopping continuum that spans brick, web and mobile. Is the proportion of online versus offline retail transactions approaching equilibrium?

Remodeling flagship stores in Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco has been the big news around Nordstrom lately. But that’s not the only news. The latest example of Nordstrom’s omnichannel emphasis is curbside pickup. Does Nordstrom have an advantage over its competitors when it comes to omnichannel?

Buried by the high cost of fulfilling online orders across multiple channels, only 16 percent of companies can fulfill omnichannel demand profitably today, according to a new study from JDA. Will the costs of seamless omnichannel fulfillment be absorbed as companies learn to work more efficiently?

The Apple product launch has become a cultural touchstone as familiar as the Black Friday mob scene. However, the “big splash” product launch may become a thing of Apple’s past. Do you think it would be a smart or dumb move for Apple to reduce the spectacle that accompanies new product launches at its stores?

“It’s here, or will be soon — the store of the future,” begins a new article from WayfinD, WD Partners’ quarterly e-magazine. The article was talking about the defunct Service Merchandise chain, which peaked at more than 400 catalog showrooms selling fine jewelry and a wide array of general merchandise. Do aspects of the Service Merchandise model represent retail’s omnichannel future?

New research from Accenture finds retailers must significantly enhance their mobile and in-store shopping experiences to match the way shoppers want to deal with retailers across multiple sales channels. In which areas will retailers have the most difficulty delivering seamless cross-channel shopping experiences?

RFID is gaining traction with retailers and manufacturers, nearing an adoption and usage “tipping point,” according to a recent study from GS1 US. Do you agree RFID is at a ‘tipping point’ as far as adoption at retail? Are the hurdles toward adoption changing?

Walmart has always been about low prices, so it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that the retailer is using discounts as a means to drive traffic for its buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) grocery tests. How important an element is price currently in the success of BOPIS grocery sales?

Adding a myriad of devices and resources to their unique shopping experiences, omnichannel consumers are expecting more out of service experiences — from initial engagement with a brand or retailer to post-purchase interactions. In what ways has omnichannel retailing and social media raised expectations around customer service?

L.L. Bean thinks it can drive more business by opening stores, and deliver an L.L. Bean customer experience as great in-person as it is online and in print. Will opening new stores have a positive or negative effect on L.L. Bean’s brand image? What will the effect of new stores have on the company’s revenues and profits?

At some point, mature retailers in mature markets will not be able to drive enough growth to satisfy investors purely by opening new stores. But omnichannel retailing may hold the key to making existing stores more productive. How can omnichannel strategies improve the productivity of existing stores?

On last week’s earnings call with analysts, Target CEO Brian Cornell said the company’s first priority was “to drive industry leading digital sales growth” and “become a leading omnichannel retailer.” Do you think Target CEO Brian Cornell is correct with his priorities?

The role of the store is changing in the new omni-channel order, but the technology needed to fuel it is still underutilized. Case in point, RFID and in-store fulfillment for online orders. What do you see as the most difficult execution challenges around BOPIS? Could RFID help retailers overcome many of the complications and hurdles around BOPIS?

Nordstrom already generates roughly $2.5 billion in annual sales through its namesake website along with others it operates, but the company sees more opportunities ahead for its digital efforts and is making big capital investments to help increase that number. What is your evaluation of Nordstrom’s current digital efforts and its plans for the future?

Target.com, as of yesterday, is lowering its minimum order to $25, no exclusions, for its online customers (AKA “guests” in Target-speak) to get their orders with no shipping fee added. Is Target on the right path to substantially increase the percent of its total sales that come through digital channels?

If today’s typically young store associates are so adept at using their smartphones, why won’t retailers let them use a store smartphone on the floor to assist consumers? Here are reasons heard straight from retail store operations. Are the hurdles or drawbacks still outweighing the benefits of serving increasingly mobile consumers?

Despite some hard-to-forget past failures (aka, Webvan), retailers continue to see online grocery as an important ingredient for catering to today’s shoppers. And according to reports, Walmart is expanding its test of in-store pickup of groceries at three stores in Arizona. Why do you think chains have moved so deliberately in rolling out online grocery with in-store pickup as an option?

Amazon is dipping its toes in the brick and mortar and ivy world. On Tuesday, the e-tail giant announced the grand opening of Amazon@Purdue, its first staffed customer order, pickup and drop-off location on the campus of the Big Ten school in Indiana. What do you think of the Amazon@Purdue program?

A recent experience with a high-end retailer, a store known for its exemplary customer service and where an embarrassingly large amount of money was spent highlights ongoing difficulties with integrating online and point-of-sales systems—and its effect on staff. Should retailers and CPG companies train their customer facing staff to compensate for inefficiencies in their internal IT systems?

Whether ordering groceries online for delivery or pickup from curbside at the store, each results in lost impulse sales that otherwise might have occurred inside the “box.” Do you see dwell time opportunities that may encourage impulse purchase for grocery home delivery or pickup? Is mobile self-checkout necessarily a negative for impulse purchases?

Beyond all the glittering new technologies on display, the NRF Big Show had a consistent theme to it, and that is that the mass merchandising days of “stack ’em high and watch ’em fly!” are over. For retailers, the starting whistle has blown and it’s time to execute within the new customer-centric paradigm. What technology solutions highlighted in the article impress you the most? What trends are you encouraged by?

By now, we’re well acquainted with many of the difficulties of implementing a working omnichannel strategy at retail. So it was refreshing to hear that three big name retailers are having omnichannel success at a recent panel discussion at NRF. Do you think omnichannel is becoming a reality for chain retailers? What do you see as the key(s) to omnichannel success?

Five years after discontinuing its “Big Book” catalog, J.C. Penney plans to return to a modified print catalog strategy, finding through analysis that online sales were partly driven by what the shoppers first saw in print. How would you characterize the relationship between print catalogs and e-commerce purchases?

Macy’s sophisticated omnichannel strategies and ongoing rollout of innovative and useful shopping tools has won the chain points with tech-savvy consumers. But with recent news of the company’s restructuring, it appears Macy’s may be trying to attract a completely different audience. Does it make sense for Macy’s to develop its own off-price concept?

A recent survey by Deloitte of 2,000 customers found smartphones influencing 19 percent of sales at physical stores, up from only five percent in 2012. At the session entitled, “The New Digital Divide,” at the NRF Big Show, Alison Paul, vice chairman and U.S. retail and distribution leader at Deloitte, offered analysis. What changes might operators of physical stores need to make to adapt to digital’s growing influence of in-store shopping?

At a keynote session Sunday at the NRF Big Show, Bill Simon, former president and CEO, Walmart U.S., said he believes pure e-commerce plays are “starting to see a peak.” At the same time, arriving technology will finally help retailers capitalize on physical retail’s inherent strengths. Which technologies will do the most to help the physical shopping experience match and/or exceed that of online shopping?

E-commerce by all indications delivered another strong holiday selling season in 2014, marked by solid double-digit growth. At the same time, a new report shows brick & mortar suffered a steep decline over the same period. Did aggressive online promotions, mobile activity, omnichannel initiatives or some other factor do the most to support online’s performance this past holiday season?

Wet Seal, a California based fashion retailer catering to young women 18 to 24, is shuttering 338 of its 500+ stores and laying off 3,700 employees. But all the news is not bad. The company has found a way to connect with its core customers online even as it has failed to do so in stores. What do the realities of the current teen and young adult fashion market mean for retailers operating in the space?

According to a study by StellaService on BOPIS, online pickup takes an average of 5.4 minutes between entering the store and checking out while standard in-store shopping takes 7 minutes on average. Does BOPIS have to be significantly faster than standard in-store purchases to see widespread customer acceptance?

Many retailers are now using their stores as fulfillment centers to ship a small portion to upwards of 20 percent of the product they sell online. But there are challenges. Are retailers overestimating the ability of stores to efficiently pick and pack online orders?

According to a study commissioned by Argos, the U.K. retailer, 59 percent of U.K. shoppers agreed they “morph” their retail purchasing behavior at Christmas in order to “compete,” with a noticeable shift to more online shopping. How is digital shopping different during the holiday season than the rest of the year?